There's no more room for error, warns Florence

Tuesday 31 July 2012

David Florence insisted there is still more to come from him and partner Richard Hounslow after they yesterday secured their spots in Thursday's semi-finals of the C2 event.

David Florence and Richard Hounslow make the C2 semi-finals. Picture: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters

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Charlie Talbot-Smith

Florence, a silver medallist in the C1 in Beijing four years ago, and Hounslow sealed their individual places on Sunday (in the C1 and K1 respectively), returning the day after to try to keep alive their bids for two medals.

But an error-strewn first run of the day in front of a raucous crowd at Lee Valley left them down in tenth place in the heats and in danger of missing out on the semis.Both had slow starts in their individual events on Sunday before producing when it really mattered on the second and final run.And yesterday it was no different, the duo clocking a time of 101.08 seconds to improve to seventh to secure their place in the next round.Florence admitted afterwards that he and Hounslow could no longer afford to stumble out of the blocks as the medal rounds approach."We were annoyed about the first run," he said. "Getting those penalties was the real problem, those two seconds added to your time for each one can really cost you."We can't afford to do this any more – in the semi-finals and final every run counts, and that means we will have to be better."But that second one was pretty solid, we didn't take many risks just to make sure we had enough and it went okay."We were really clear with what we wanted to do. Obviously it would have been nice to have put in a clean first run, but we have proved that we can perform when the pressure is on."In the second run we quickly got into a good rhythm and in the end, apart from a couple of moments at the top of the course, we were pretty comfortable."Florence's attention now returns to the individual C1 event, in which the Aberdeen-born canoeist is the world No.1, and aiming to turn his Olympic silver from 2008 into a 2012 gold.But the 29-year-old is refusing to get too carried away at the prospect of topping the podium in front of a home crowd."I'm just looking forward to racing out there," he added. "The crowd have been fantastic and I just hope I can go out and deliver a good performance."That's all I can ask for really. If I perform as well as I can but three people do better than me then I will hold my hands up and still be happy."Bank of Scotland, proud supporter of Team GB and proud partner of the London 2012 Olympic Games. Get closer to the Games at bankofscotland.co.uk/London2012

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There's no more room for error, warns Florence

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